1^9' 1 Mack AY on the Gloldcn Plover. 2% 



the younger ones. It would seem to ie(juire certain conditions 

 of weather, and time of migration to make the \oung liirds land 

 on our coast, and the rare occurrence of these conditions must 

 account for the irregularity of their appearance. 



The question may be asked why the Golden Plover remain, or 

 come here at all. The answer is that they do not remain any lon- 

 ger than is absolutely necessary, and land only under stress of 

 weather ; for the moment a clear streak is visible on the western 

 or northern horizon, at the end of the stormy weather which has 

 forced them to land, and a few pufls announce that the wind is 

 soon to change and the weather to clear, almost e\ery bird takes 

 rtight from these inhospitable shores, mounts high into the air, 

 and steers for the .South ; where many may have been yesterday, 

 none remain today. When tired, in moderate weatlier, they have 

 been known to alight on the ocean ; at least so I have lieen in- 

 formed by some of the men on the South Shoal Light-ship, which 

 is anchored twenty-five miles oft" the south side of Nantucket 

 Island. 



J. P. Giraud, Jr., in his 'Birds of Long Island' states that the 

 Golden Plover arrives there in the latter part of April, on the 

 way to the North. I have, however, never seen any recorded, 

 and have heard of but three C domiiiicus being taken, in New 

 England in the spring, one being on Nantucket, one at Dennis, 

 Cape Cod, and one at Scituate, Mass. Personally I have never 

 met with it at this season of the year. 



As far as my observation shows on the Island of Nantucket, 

 the Golden Plover usually seeks land about dusk and during the 

 first half of the night. I can recall but three occasions when they 

 landed during the daytime, and on two of those in very inconsid- 

 eralile numbeis. It is usual several times durinsr the mio-ratino^ 

 period to hear them whistling as the}' pass low down over the town 

 of Nantucket; but on these occasions, unless it is storming hard, 

 they do not stop, but pass on, if the wind is fair (northeast). I 

 have been many times disappointed on driving over the Plover 

 ground at daylight on tlie following morning to find that no birds 

 had stopped. In other words, it is a most difficult matter to 'hit 

 the flight,' for it requires a combination of circumstances and 

 weather which rarely happens, to enable one to obtain any number 

 of these birds on the Atlantic coast. 



In regard to the numbers of these birds formerly, and at the 



